CYCLING: Biking in the U.S.A. -- Day 25; Drops of Kindness

By GRACE LICHTENSTEIN,

Published: July 3, 1992

ALEXANDRIA, Minn. July 2—
Small acts of kindness made a big difference when adversity struck our bicycle group the other day. A cold rain hit unexpectedly outside Cooperstown, N.D., as we began a 97-mile day. Twenty-six miles later, rider after chilled rider stopped in the tiny town of Hope (pop. 406), piling into the Hope Cafe and Bowling Lanes in search of coffee and comfort.

Hope was equal to its motto, "The Little City of Friendly People." Waitresses served free seconds of hot chocolate and found plastic bags for us to use as sock liners. A local grocer gave Howard Bartlett a bunch of free postcards so we could see how pretty Hope looked on a sunny day.

Robi Dalrymple, our sterling bike mechanic, drove the luggage truck directly to the cafe so cyclists could pull out warmer clothing. He gave Carole Marks of Winchester, Mass., his own socks and waterproof pants. Carole, in turn, lent me her neoprene boots, since plastic sandwich bags were keeping her feet more or less dry. Greg Licholai of New Haven, and Lynette Rasmussen of Seattle each dug out a shirt for Terri Weber, who had shipped all her cold-weather tops home.

An hour or two later, having wolfed down second breakfasts for which the cafe charged 1950's prices, we climbed back on our bikes for 13 more wet miles until we came to Page (pop. 329), where a bunch of us stopped at a laundromat and threw many of our clothes and shoes in a dryer.

Things could have been worse. A week earlier in Page, a tornado flattened a huge grain silo.

It is hard to believe, but yesterday we passed mile 1,679, the halfway mark on our trip from coast to coast.